I was lost for exactly seven minutes.<\/p>\n
I know because my father checked his watch approximately fourteen times after finding me.<\/p>\n
To me, however, those seven minutes lasted half a lifetime.<\/p>\n
We were at a crowded book fair.<\/p>\n
One moment, I was walking beside my parents.<\/p>\n
The next, I stopped at a stall because a giant illustrated atlas had caught my attention.<\/p>\n
I opened it.<\/p>\n
There were maps of imaginary worlds, drawings of sea monsters and tiny notes about explorers.<\/p>\n
I forgot everything else.<\/p>\n
When I finally turned around, my parents were gone.<\/p>\n
At first, I was not afraid.<\/p>\n
Obviously, they were nearby.<\/p>\n
I walked to the next stall.<\/p>\n
Then the next.<\/p>\n
No Mum.<\/p>\n
No Dad.<\/p>\n
The hall suddenly seemed much larger than it had five minutes earlier.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people were moving in every direction.<\/p>\n
Every adult wearing a blue shirt briefly looked like my father.<\/p>\n
Every woman with long hair made me speed up.<\/p>\n
Nobody was them.<\/p>\n
My clever solution was to retrace my steps.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, every stall looked almost identical.<\/p>\n
BOOKS.<\/p>\n
DISCOUNT.<\/p>\n
NEW RELEASES.<\/p>\n
CHILDREN’S SECTION.<\/p>\n
I began walking faster.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered something my parents had told me many times:<\/p>\n
If you get separated in a crowded place, do not keep wandering.<\/p>\n
Find a responsible adult and stay in one location.<\/p>\n
It was excellent advice.<\/p>\n
I wished I had remembered it three minutes earlier.<\/p>\n
I approached a woman wearing an organiser badge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can’t find my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
She immediately became calm in the way adults become calm when they realise a child is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is your name?\u201d<\/p>\n
I told her.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents’ names?\u201d<\/p>\n
I told her those too.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhone number?\u201d<\/p>\n
Blank.<\/p>\n
I knew my own number.<\/p>\n
I knew our Wi-Fi password.<\/p>\n
I knew the name of every member of my favourite football team.<\/p>\n
I did not know my father’s phone number.<\/p>\n
That felt like an important design flaw in my education.<\/p>\n
The organiser took me to the information desk.<\/p>\n
An announcement began.<\/p>\n
Before it finished, I saw my father.<\/p>\n
He was moving through the crowd at a speed I had never seen him achieve voluntarily.<\/p>\n
Mum was behind him.<\/p>\n
My relief arrived so quickly that I nearly laughed.<\/p>\n
Dad did not.<\/p>\n
He hugged me first.<\/p>\n
Then examined me as though I might have lost a limb without noticing.<\/p>\n
Then came the questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did you go?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you move?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know what time it is?\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently, seven minutes had passed.<\/p>\n
Only seven.<\/p>\n
That evening, Dad made me memorise both my parents’ phone numbers.<\/p>\n
I complained.<\/p>\n
I repeated them anyway.<\/p>\n
The atlas that caused the entire disaster came home with us.<\/p>\n
Dad bought it.<\/p>\n
I still have it.<\/p>\n
On the first page, in his handwriting, are two phone numbers.<\/p>\n
I memorised the numbers years ago.<\/p>\n
I have never erased them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was lost for exactly seven minutes. I know because my father checked his watch approximately fourteen times after finding me. To me, however, those seven minutes lasted half a lifetime. We were at a crowded book fair. One moment, I was walking beside my parents. The next, I stopped at a stall because a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[631,628,622,629,625,620,630,624],"class_list":["post-4753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-experiences","tag-creative-writing","tag-family","tag-fiction","tag-friendship","tag-life-experiences","tag-personal","tag-well-being","tag-youth","enable-dropcap","disable-2-columns"],"yoast_head":"\n